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Jean-Michel Basquiat - Quiz
Contributed by: Long
  • 1. What nationality was Jean-Michel Basquiat?
A) British
B) French
C) American
D) Italian
  • 2. In what year was Basquiat born?
A) 1950
B) 1960
C) 1970
D) 1980
  • 3. Which artistic movement was Basquiat associated with?
A) Minimalism
B) Cubism
C) Surrealism
D) Neo-expressionism
  • 4. What was Basquiat's graffiti artist tag name?
A) SAMO
B) KEITH HARING
C) BANKSY
D) STERLING RUBY
  • 5. What was Basquiat's father's profession?
A) Musician
B) Accountant
C) Painter
D) Architect
  • 6. At what age did Basquiat first exhibit his artwork in a public exhibition?
A) 17
B) 13
C) 25
D) 21
  • 7. Which artist was a close friend of Basquiat and also tragically died young?
A) Cy Twombly
B) Jasper Johns
C) Keith Haring
D) Robert Rauschenberg
  • 8. Which museum held a major retrospective of Basquiat's work in 1992?
A) The Louvre
B) Guggenheim Museum
C) Tate Modern
D) Whitney Museum of American Art
  • 9. In what year did Basquiat achieve international fame?
A) 1982
B) 1975
C) 1990
D) 2005
  • 10. Which famous artist did Basquiat collaborate with on paintings in the 1980s?
A) Andy Warhol
B) Jackson Pollock
C) Vincent van Gogh
D) Pablo Picasso
  • 11. In which city was Jean-Michel Basquiat born?
A) Chicago
B) New York City
C) Los Angeles
D) Miami
  • 12. At what age did Basquiat become the youngest artist to take part in Documenta in Kassel, Germany?
A) 21
B) 30
C) 18
D) 25
  • 13. What themes did Basquiat's art often focus on?
A) Wealth versus poverty, integration versus segregation, and inner versus outer experience
B) Portraits of celebrities
C) Nature and landscapes
D) Abstract patterns
  • 14. In what year did an Untitled painting by Basquiat sell for $110.5 million?
A) 2020
B) 2008
C) 1999
D) 2017
  • 15. What was the name of the book Jean-Michel Basquiat and Marc Prozzo created when he was seven?
A) The Art of Graffiti
B) A children's book written by Basquiat at age seven and illustrated by Prozzo
C) Basquiat's Diary
D) The Adventures of SAMO
  • 16. What injury did Basquiat sustain in 1968?
A) Burns
B) Fractured leg
C) Broken arm and several internal injuries requiring a splenectomy
D) Concussion
  • 17. Which languages was Basquiat fluent in by the age of 11?
A) Japanese, Chinese, and Korean
B) French, Spanish, and English
C) Arabic, Hebrew, and Turkish
D) German, Italian, and Russian
  • 18. Where did Basquiat's family move to in 1974?
A) Los Angeles, California
B) Miami, Florida
C) Houston, Texas
D) Miramar, Puerto Rico
  • 19. What school did Basquiat attend after moving back to Brooklyn in 1976?
A) Queens High School for the Sciences
B) Stuyvesant High School
C) Edward R. Murrow High School
D) Brooklyn Technical High School
  • 20. What alternative high school did Basquiat enroll in?
A) City-As-School
B) High School of Art and Design
C) Stuyvesant High School
D) Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School
  • 21. What was the original meaning behind the acronym 'SAMO'?
A) 'Same old shit'
B) Save Art, Make Ourselves Known
C) Street Art Movement Organization
D) Society of American Modernists
  • 22. Which publication featured an article about the SAMO graffiti in December 1978?
A) High Times
B) Rolling Stone
C) The Village Voice
D) Artforum
  • 23. On which television show did Basquiat appear in 1979, hosted by Glenn O'Brien?
A) TV Party
B) Saturday Night Live
C) The Tonight Show
D) Late Night with David Letterman
  • 24. Which band did Basquiat and Michael Holman found in April 1979?
A) Gray
B) Test Pattern
C) The Ramones
D) The Clash
  • 25. Where did Basquiat live with his girlfriend Alexis Adler during the late 1970s?
A) East Village
B) Greenwich Village
C) Lower Manhattan
D) Harlem
  • 26. What type of diagrams did Basquiat often copy from Alexis Adler's textbooks?
A) Chemical compound diagrams
B) Anatomical diagrams
C) Biological cell diagrams
D) Mathematical equations
  • 27. Where did Basquiat sell his postcards in SoHo?
A) CBGB
B) Hurrah
C) Max's Kansas City
D) W.P.A. restaurant
  • 28. What was the title of the postcard sold to Andy Warhol?
A) MAN MADE
B) The State of the Outlaw Art
C) SAMO© AS AN ALTERNATIVE TO GOD
D) Stupid Games, Bad Ideas
  • 29. What was the name of Basquiat's clothing line created at A's?
A) "TEST PATTERN"
B) "SAMO"
C) "MAN MADE"
D) "GRAY"
  • 30. Which boutique carried Basquiat's clothing line in November 1979?
A) Maxfield Parrish Gallery
B) The Limelight Storefront
C) Annina Nosei Gallery
D) Patricia Field's upscale boutique
  • 31. In which year did Jean-Michel Basquiat participate in The Times Square Show?
A) 1980
B) 1979
C) 1982
D) 1981
  • 32. Who mentioned Basquiat in an article titled 'Report from Times Square'?
A) Sandro Chia
B) Jeffrey Deitch
C) Rene Ricard
D) Diego Cortez
  • 33. Which magazine published Rene Ricard's article 'The Radiant Child'?
A) Artforum
B) Rolling Stone
C) Vogue
D) Art in America
  • 34. What was the title of Basquiat's first painting sold to Debbie Harry?
A) Cadillac Moon
B) Radiant Child
C) Rapture
D) Downtown 81
  • 35. Who financially supported Jean-Michel Basquiat during his early career?
A) Annina Nosei
B) Suzanne Mallouk
C) Debbie Harry
D) Emilio Mazzoli
  • 36. Which gallery did Annina Nosei invite Basquiat to join?
A) Gallery in Modena
B) P.S.1
C) Her own gallery
D) Fashion Moda
  • 37. Where was Basquiat's first American one-man show held?
A) Annina Nosei Gallery
B) Collaborative Projects Incorporated
C) P.S.1
D) Modena gallery
  • 38. What was the reason Basquiat gave for canceling his second Italian exhibition?
A) He felt exploited due to tight deadlines.
B) Lack of interest from the public
C) Poor sales at previous exhibitions
D) Disagreement with the curator
  • 39. Who recommended Basquiat's work to Italian dealer Emilio Mazzoli?
A) Annina Nosei
B) Sandro Chia
C) Rene Ricard
D) Jeffrey Deitch
  • 40. In which music video did Basquiat appear as a disc jockey?
A) 'Downtown 81'
B) 'Radiant Child'
C) 'Cadillac Moon'
D) Blondie's 'Rapture'
  • 41. What was the record high for Basquiat's annual auction sales in 2021?
A) $110.5 million
B) $20.1 million
C) $115 million
D) $439.6 million
  • 42. How many of Basquiat's works did Emilio Mazzoli purchase in 1981?
A) Five
B) Twenty
C) Fifteen
D) Ten
  • 43. Which jazz musician was particularly a hero for Basquiat?
A) Miles Davis
B) John Coltrane
C) Charlie Parker
D) Louis Armstrong
  • 44. Who did Basquiat befriend in Paris during his exhibition?
A) Ivorian artist Ouattara Watts
B) Glenn O'Brien
C) Francesco Clemente
D) Keith Haring
  • 45. What was the name of the imprint under which Jean-Michel Basquiat pressed the limited edition 'Beat Bop' record?
A) Whitney Biennial
B) Gemini G.E.L.
C) Tartown Inc.
D) Interview
  • 46. What is a major theme in Basquiat's Slave Auction (1982) and Jim Crow (1986)?
A) African-American history
B) Space exploration
C) Medieval European battles
D) The Industrial Revolution
  • 47. Which book significantly influenced Jean-Michel Basquiat's depictions of human anatomy?
A) Human Physiology
B) The Anatomy of the Human Body
C) Gray's Anatomy
D) Anatomy for Artists
  • 48. By what percentage did Basquiat's annual auction sales fall in 2022?
A) 50%
B) 100%
C) 25%
D) 75%
  • 49. In what year did the authentication committee announce its dissolution?
A) 2008
B) 2012
C) 2016
D) 2023
  • 50. In which year did Basquiat's first public showing of paintings and drawings occur at MoMA PS1?
A) 1979
B) 1983
C) 1981
D) 1985
  • 51. How many drawings did Jean-Michel Basquiat produce during his career?
A) Around 600
B) Over 2,000
C) Around 1,500
D) Less than 1,000
  • 52. Who organized a show of Jean-Michel Basquiat's work at her friend's New York apartment in April 1983?
A) Madonna
B) Lee Jaffe
C) Jennifer Goode
D) Paige Powell
  • 53. Who curated the exhibition Jean-Michel Basquiat: King Pleasure?
A) Rene Ricard
B) Marc Mayer
C) Basquiat's family
D) Franklin Sirmans
  • 54. Who found Jean-Michel Basquiat unresponsive?
A) Glenn O'Brien
B) His girlfriend Kelle Inman
C) Keith Haring
D) Paige Powell
  • 55. Which art historian situates Basquiat's anatomical screen prints as an assertion of vulnerability?
A) Pablo Picasso
B) Kellie Jones
C) Fred Hoffman
D) Olivier Berggruen
  • 56. What was the highest amount paid for an original work of Basquiat's before 2002?
A) $10 million
B) $20 million
C) $3.3 million
D) $5.5 million
  • 57. What was the title of the exhibition that caused a rift in Jean-Michel Basquiat's friendship with Andy Warhol?
A) Taxi, 45th/Broadway
B) Olympics (1984)
C) Paintings
D) Zenith
  • 58. Which fashion designer's runway did Jean-Michel Basquiat walk for in 1985?
A) Comme des Garçons
B) Gagosian
C) Armani
D) Boone
  • 59. Which art critic wrote that Basquiat experienced a good taste of fame in his last years?
A) Robert Hughes
B) Hilton Kramer
C) Bonnie Rosenberg
D) Franklin Sirmans
  • 60. In which year did Basquiat appear on the cover of The New York Times Magazine?
A) 1985
B) 1986
C) 1987
D) 1984
  • 61. Where did Jean-Michel Basquiat move into a loft owned by Andy Warhol in August 1983?
A) 57 Great Jones Street, NoHo
B) Salzburg, Austria
C) Venice Beach, California
D) Market Street studio space
  • 62. Who compared Basquiat's work to the emergence of hip-hop?
A) Rene Ricard
B) Franklin Sirmans
C) David Bowie
D) Niru Ratnam
  • 63. Which painting by Basquiat references Charlie Parker?
A) Horn Players (1983)
B) Untitled (Axe/Rene) (1984)
C) King Zulu (1986)
D) Charles the First (1982)
  • 64. What was the sale price of Untitled (Head) (1982) in June 2020?
A) $41.8 million
B) $15.2 million
C) $20.9 million
D) $10.8 million
  • 65. Which artist was a collector of Basquiat's works?
A) Andy Warhol
B) Robert Hughes
C) Franklin Sirmans
D) David Bowie
  • 66. What was the title of the collaborative work Jean-Michel Basquiat and Andy Warhol created for the 1984 Summer Olympics?
A) Paintings
B) Zenith
C) Olympics (1984)
D) Taxi, 45th/Broadway
  • 67. What was the sale price of Self-Portrait as a Heel (Part Two) (1982) at Sotheby's in 2023?
A) $48.3 million
B) $67.1 million
C) $46.5 million
D) $42 million
  • 68. What was the cost of obtaining an opinion from Basquiat's authentication committee?
A) $100
B) $50
C) $500
D) $200
  • 69. Who purchased Basquiat's first painting in 1981?
A) Singer Debbie Harry
B) Gallerist Emilio Mazzoli
C) Drummer Lars Ulrich
D) Mary Boone
  • 70. What was the title of Rene Ricard's article that brought Basquiat to the attention of the art world?
A) Child Prodigy
B) Radiant Child
C) The Radiant Artist
D) Basquiat: The Rising Star
  • 71. Who sued the Basquiat authentication committee in 2008?
A) Basquiat's sisters
B) Guido Orsi
C) Tony Shafrazi
D) Gerard De Geer
  • 72. What was the title of the painting Jean-Michel Basquiat created after his first meeting with Andy Warhol?
A) Equals Pi
B) Hollywood Africans
C) Dos Cabezas
D) A Panel of Experts
  • 73. Who purchased Untitled (1982) for $57.3 million at Christie's in 2017?
A) Gallerist Emilio Mazzoli
B) American businessman Ken Griffin
C) Drummer Lars Ulrich
D) Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa
  • 74. What did Basquiat design for André Heller's Luna Luna amusement park?
A) A carousel
B) A Ferris wheel
C) A bumper car attraction
D) A roller coaster
  • 75. Where is Jean-Michel Basquiat buried?
A) Manhattan's Central Park
B) Brooklyn's Green-Wood Cemetery
C) Hamburg
D) Cabrini Medical Center
  • 76. What did Basquiat paint on during this period?
A) Canvas only
B) Objects found in the streets
C) Leather jackets
D) Blank walls
  • 77. Basquiat reclaims blackness from what process?
A) Economic exploitation
B) Cultural appropriation
C) Political marginalization
D) "Aesthetic colonization"
  • 78. Which artist's work did Jean-Michel Basquiat take considerable interest in while visiting Gemini G.E.L.?
A) Madonna
B) Robert Rauschenberg
C) Andy Warhol
D) George Condo
  • 79. What was the sale price of Sugar Ray Robinson (1982) at Christie's in 2022?
A) $42 million
B) $32.6 million
C) $46.5 million
D) $67.1 million
  • 80. Who got to know Basquiat well as the editor of Artforum?
A) Keith Haring
B) Francesco Clemente
C) Ingrid Sischy
D) Paige Powell
  • 81. Which spiritual tradition's symbolism is alluded to by the skulls in Basquiat's paintings such as Red Skull and Untitled?
A) Christian iconography
B) Buddhist philosophy
C) Haitian Vodou
D) Islamic art
  • 82. Which piece by Basquiat juxtaposes evolutionary science with themes of marginality?
A) Dustheads
B) Untitled (Charles Darwin)
C) Irony of Negro Policeman
D) Hollywood Africans
  • 83. Which art dealer became Jean-Michel Basquiat's worldwide representative after he left the Annina Nosei Gallery?
A) Larry Gagosian
B) Mary Boone
C) Fay Gold
D) Bruno Bischofberger
  • 84. What was the name of the nightclub where Jean-Michel Basquiat sometimes worked as a DJ?
A) Tail o' the Pup
B) Whisky a Go Go
C) Palladium
D) Area
  • 85. What does Basquiat's depiction of the black body resist?
A) Reductive racial representations
B) Surrealist techniques
C) Abstract forms
D) Traditional portraiture
  • 86. What was the name of Jean-Michel Basquiat's girlfriend who he claimed would become famous?
A) Jennifer Goode
B) Madonna
C) Lee Jaffe
D) Paige Powell
  • 87. How much did singer Debbie Harry pay for Basquiat's first painting?
A) $200
B) $3.3 million
C) $10,000
D) $5,000
  • 88. Who sold Profit I (1982) at Christie's in 2002?
A) Singer Debbie Harry
B) Gallerist Emilio Mazzoli
C) Drummer Lars Ulrich
D) Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa
  • 89. Which app announced the sale of an untitled drawing on paper for $10.8 million in 2020?
A) Christie's App
B) Fair Warning
C) Sotheby's App
D) Phillips App
  • 90. Which nightclub did Jean-Michel Basquiat paint murals for?
A) Area
B) Palladium
C) Tail o' the Pup
D) Whisky a Go Go
  • 91. For how much did Yusaku Maezawa sell Untitled (1982) at Phillips in 2022?
A) $57.3 million
B) $85 million
C) $20.9 million
D) $110.5 million
  • 92. What year were three paintings displayed as Basquiats at the FIAC revealed to be fakes?
A) 2002
B) 1994
C) 2007
D) 2014
  • 93. What was the sale price of Crowns (Peso Neto) (1981) at Sotheby's in 2025?
A) $67.1 million
B) $46.5 million
C) $48.3 million
D) $42 million
  • 94. Who photographed Basquiat at the Tony Shafrazi Gallery?
A) Allen Ginsberg
B) Keith Haring
C) Francesco Clemente
D) Glenn O'Brien
  • 95. What cultural elements are suggested by the heads in Basquiat's works like Untitled (Two Heads on Gold) and Philistines?
A) Japanese samurai helmets
B) African masks, suggesting a cultural reclamation
C) : European classical art
D) American pop culture
  • 96. Who read a poem by Langston Hughes at Basquiat's memorial?
A) David Shapiro
B) Ingrid Sischy
C) His friend Fab 5 Freddy
D) John Lurie
  • 97. Basquiat's relationship with which culture enriches his aesthetic of blackness?
A) Classical music
B) Opera
C) Jazz
D) Hip-hop culture
  • 98. Which city did Jean-Michel Basquiat visit for an exhibition organized by Bruno Bischofberger in October 1986?
A) Atlanta, Georgia
B) Paris, France
C) Abidjan, Ivory Coast
D) Salzburg, Austria
  • 99. In which city did Jean-Michel Basquiat have his last exhibition on the West Coast in January 1986?
A) Atlanta, Georgia
B) Los Angeles
C) New York City
D) Paris
  • 100. Where was the public memorial for Basquiat held?
A) Yvon Lambert Gallery
B) Cabrini Medical Center
C) Frank E. Campbell Funeral Chapel
D) Saint Peter's Church
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